Lesson XXVI

The Red-shouldered and Red-tailed Hawks

Leading thought—Ignorant people consider all hawks dangerous neighbors because they are supposed to feed exclusively on poultry. This idea is false and we should study carefully the habits of hawks before we shoot them. The ordinary large reddish “hen-hawks,” which circle high above meadows, are doing great good to the farmer by feeding upon the mice and other creatures which steal his grain and girdle his trees.

Methods—Begin by observations on the flight of one of these hawks and supplement this with such observations as the pupils are able to make, or facts which they can discover by talking with hunters or others and by reading.

Observations—1. How can you tell a hawk, when flying, from a crow or other large bird? Describe how it soars. Does it move off in any direction; if so, does it move off in circles? How often does it make strokes with its wings? Does it rise when it is facing the wind and fall as it turns its back to the wind?

2. Have you seen a hawk flap its wings many times and then soar for a time? If so, what hawk do you think it was? How does it differ in habits from the “hen-hawks?”

3. Have you noticed a hawk when soaring drop suddenly to earth? If so, why did it do this?

4. How does a hawk hunt? How can it see a mouse in a meadow when it is so high in the air that it looks like a circling speck in the sky? If it is so far-sighted as this, how can it be near-sighted enough to catch the mouse when it is close to it? Would you not have to use field glasses or telescope to do this?

5. When a hawk alights what sort of a place does it choose? How does it act?

6. Do hawks seize their prey with their claws or their beaks? What sort of feet and claws has the hawk? Describe the beak. What do you think this shaped beak is meant for?

7. Why do people shoot hawks? Why is it a sign of ignorance in people to wish to shoot all hawks?

8. What is the food of the red-shouldered hawk as shown by the bulletin of the U. S. Department of Agriculture or by the Audubon leaflets?

9. Where does the hawk place its nest? Of what does it build its nest?

10. Compare the food and the nesting habits of the red-shouldered and red-tailed hawks.

11. How devoted are the hawks to their mates and their young? Does a hawk, losing its mate, live alone ever after?

12. Describe the colors of the hen hawks and describe how you can tell the two species apart by the colors and markings of the tail.

13. What is the cry of the hawk? How can you tell the two species apart by this cry? Does the hawk give its cry only when on the wing?

14. Why should an eagle be considered so noble a bird and the hawk be so scorned? What difference is there between them in habits?

Supplementary reading—Audubon Educational Leaflets Nos. 8, 9 and 10; “The Sparrow Hawk,” Familiar Wild Animals, Lottridge; “Eyes as Cameras,” also pp. 101–102 The Bird Book, Eckstorm; pp. 317–319, 326, Birds that Hunt and are Hunted; “Cloud Wings, The Eagle,” in Wilderness Ways; “The Sky King and His Family,” “Hannah Lomond’s Bairn,” in Neighbors with Wings and Fins, American Birds, Finley.

Reference books—The Bird, Beebe, pp. 389, 376, 208–211; Hawks and Owls from the Standpoint of the Farmer, Fisher, U. S. Department of Agriculture.

Yet, ere the noon, as brass the heaven turns,
The cruel sun smites with unerring aim,
The sight and touch of all things blinds and burns,
And bare, hot hills seem shimmering into flame!

On outspread wings a hawk, far poised on high,
Quick swooping screams, and then is heard no more:
The strident shrilling of a locust nigh
Breaks forth, and dies in silence as before.

—“Summer Drought,” by J. P. Irvine.